:ninja: So...did he commit rape...or is he simply just guilty of being the favourite for the Next President of The French Republic :huh:

IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has consented to a medical examination over allegations of serious sexual assault.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, who was arrested in New York, denies charges of attacking and attempting to rape a hotel maid.

His court hearing scheduled for Sunday was postponed until Monday to allow forensic tests to be carried out.

French writer Tristane Banon is considering legal action against Mr Strauss-Kahn for an alleged sexual assault in 2002, her lawyer said.

Ms Banon, 31, claimed Mr Strauss-Kahn attacked her when she went to interview him. She chose not to file suit against him at the time.

Mr Strauss-Kahn, a former finance minister, has until now been considered a frontrunner to be the Socialist candidate for president in 2012.

He had been scheduled to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday in Berlin and then attend an EU finance ministers' meeting in Brussels on Monday on bailouts for Portugal and Greece.

Correspondents say he has been central to efforts to stabilise the finances of struggling eurozone member states and his detention is likely to complicate the process.

The Euro fell half a cent to $1.4063 when Asian markets opened on Monday - a six-week low against the dollar - reflecting concerns about the impact the arrest could have on bailouts plans for Portugal and Greece.

Mr Strauss-Kahn - often referred to in France simply as DSK - was detained at JFK airport on Saturday night as he prepared to fly to Europe.

He is believed to have been in New York on personal business. He does not have diplomatic immunity, a New York police spokesman said.

The first reaction of many ordinary French people is that this has got to be a put-up job. That says more about French political culture, that there have been so many operations mounted against politicians. It has been full of dirty tricks in the past.

But this changes everything. There's a lingering hope among some of Mr Strauss-Kahn's supporters that somehow this will be explained away.

The conspiracy theories are beginning to circulate on the internet but realistically there is no evidence for that. I think in the next day or so, the realisation will really take hold that his candidacy is over.

For the left, it is a bitter blow because he was very much the man they thought could carry their banner through to next year's elections and beat Nicolas Sarkozy.
The 62-year-old was kept overnight in a special unit for sexual harassment in New York's Harlem district. On Sunday he was charged with a "criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment, and attempted rape".

Police say the 32-year-old woman who made the allegations has formally identified him in a line-up.

Mr Strauss-Kahn's clothing will be tested for DNA traces, the New York Times reported.

'International conspiracy'

Speaking outside court in Manhattan, lawyer William Taylor said Mr Strauss-Kahn had "willingly consented to a scientific and forensic examination", adding that he was "tired but fine".

A second lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said his client "intends to vigorously defend these charges and he denies any wrongdoing".

Mr Strauss-Kahn's wife, prominent French journalist Anne Sinclair, has also said she believes he is innocent.

"I do not believe for one second the accusations brought against my husband," she said in a statement sent to the AFP news agency on Sunday.

The BBC's David Chazan, in Paris, says there has been a mixed reaction to the arrest in France, with some people seeing it as a national humiliation but others suggesting that he might have been set up by his political opponents.

Mr Strauss-Kahn was widely expected to announce his intention to run for the French presidency soon, and was seen as having a genuine chance of beating President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Paris regional councillor Michelle Sabban told AFP: "I am convinced it is an international conspiracy... This is a new form of political assassination."

Socialist legislator Jean-Marie Le Guen said: "The facts as they were reported today have nothing to do with the Dominique Strauss-Kahn whom we know."

Career damaged

Meanwhile, a centre-right opponent of Mr Strauss-Kahn's, Dominique Paille, said if the allegations were true, it would be "an historic moment, but in the negative sense, for French political life".

"I hope that everyone respects the presumption of innocence. I cannot manage to believe this affair," he told French TV.

The IMF said John Lipsky would temporarily take over Mr Strauss-Kahn's role But the leader of the National Front party, Marine Le Pen, said Mr Strauss-Kahn had been "definitively discredited".

Mr Strauss-Kahn has won praise for his stewardship of the IMF, which he has guided through difficult times including the recent world financial crisis.

In 2008, he was criticised by the IMF board for an affair with a subordinate member of staff. The board said the affair had been consensual but reflected a "serious error of judgement".

John Lipsky has been appointed acting managing director of the IMF in his absence.

The fund's director of external relations, Caroline Atkinson, said the organisation remained "fully functioning and operational".

Tyburn

05-16-2011, 03:08 PM

:laugh: Fancy a French Socialist as a President? :laugh:

Maybe he done it...but probably judging on his politics, and his likelihood of winning, and on his ability to "share" our money in Europe with those who cant manage their own budgit....

I'd say this was political assassination :frantics:

Bonnie

05-16-2011, 03:08 PM

The idea that his opponents would "set him up" here in America rather than France seems far-fetched to me.

Tyburn

05-16-2011, 03:14 PM

The idea that his opponents would "set him up" here in America rather than France seems far-fetched to me.

:laugh: He's a Socialist....Perhaps the French thought it more apt that it take place in America....Americans hate Socialism...its poetic liscence...or maybe it was some Anti-Euro guy, who disliked the Socialism of the International Monetary Fund...and how it has no quarms in making all the Good European Countries who work hard to control their spending...paying out on crap little countries whose Governments just didnt want to curb their spending despite a recession :laugh:

It might be about the French Presidency...it could be about the Euro...or it might be about his Left Wing politics...one or the other probably offends more then half the entire world

I Dont think its America...they couldnt care less about France since the Veto, and the Dollar isnt threatened by the Euro...they hate Socialism...but their Democratic President is as Socialist an Administrator as the United States has ever seen...Dont think its the Americans this time. :wink:

KENTUCKYREDBONE

05-16-2011, 06:08 PM

The idea that his opponents would "set him up" here in America rather than France seems far-fetched to me.

Bet America will somehow be blamed though!

County Mike

05-16-2011, 06:27 PM

I don't get the 2002 part of your title. This "allegedly" happened Saturday.

Twinsmama

05-16-2011, 06:31 PM

it supposedly happened on an interviewer years ago too. this morning the news was saying since the lady from years ago seen he did it again she felt she needed to say something before it happened again. she also said she wouldn't file a civil suit but thought she should file criminal charges. i'd bet the civil would come later though if the statutes allow it.